MD1032

It is absolutely all about synergy. When I first got my Fortes, I was using them with my T-amp. I thought "man, these sound great, but they could really use a tad more bass", so I bought my Harman/Kardon 430. The HK had a problem, which I fixed later in the summer (also got a refund... free!). I then used my parents' Pioneer SX-3700. That amp was pretty good and had a beefier bottom-end, but didn't nearly have the detail in the highs that the HK had. After I figured out that the hum in the HK 430 was in the rectifier C board (the one for the main amp board), I replaced and upgraded the main capacitors. I listened to it and thought it was an improvement, then I realized I had left the bass knob turned down after fixing the pots with deoxit and the bass hit me and I nearly went through the roof. Literally, this amp completely transforms these speakers. Quite honestly, I turn down the bass a tad now because it's almost too much. In conclusion, though, it's all about synergy. Anyway, getting back to my original post, I know you mentioned that you listen to the Rolling Stones. In my opinion, they recorded with some of the worst recording quality of that time period. Their music sounds like a garage band with a microphone put down next to it. Honestly, any Klipsch speaker you buy is going to reveal that, but especially heritage and Fortes. Does this mean that I don't listen to poorly recorded music on my Fortes? No, I listen to everything. It's just that when your favorite band uses a crappy mic or hits a clunker, you're just going to cringe even more. Heck, I listen to The Who, Led Zeppelin, Kansas, you name it. I am a huge classic rock fan, and most of it sounds AMAZING on the Fortes. Still... there's always that one in 20 track that just sounds like garbage. In terms of size, your room is easily big enough to accomodate Fortes. I put them in my tiny 13x9x7 room back home and they fit... sort of. Well, I made them fit. Bottom line, unless you're a complete pack-rat, you'll want to make the room for these babies. The Choruses are definitely larger than the Fortes. Wider, taller, and bigger. My recommendation would be to do as much research as you can and don't get stuck on one speaker. My Fortes are the best speakers I've ever heard in my life, and truly produce an awesome sound, but I've never owned heritage or high-end reference like the RF-7's. Do your best to educate yourself before buying, and invest in a good amp like the HK 430!

As a Forte II owner, let me put in my $0.02. Firstly, the Fortes are not a small speaker by any stretch of the imagination. The Heresys look like large bookshelf speakers by comparison, and in reality, that's basically what they are. The foreseeable problem I might see with you getting the fortes is that they are very revealing. Don't get me wrong, I love mine, it's just that I find every once in a while, I play a recording that just sounds like total crap because that's how it was recorded or encoded. if you play low quality MP3's through these, you'll hear it. That's all for now... more later.

If you have to ask the question about whether the amp or source behind the Fortes is a problem, it probably is. I couldn't believe how different my Fortes sounded depending on the amp or source connected to them. Literally, it completely changes the sound.

If you're comfortable with a soldering iron, just make some, if not, I think $5.00 for a cable is pretty reasonable. The connctors are usually a few bucks on their own.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the PM4.1 use the same woofers as the 2.1? Those are all over ebay.

I'm sure the nodding and near-accidents will be worth it... it always is! Some of my favorite electronics store and craigslist steals were always done when I swore my body was running on empty... but after a full night's sleep, I'm always pleased. There's something about that experience of going through a crappy day, fighting with sleep, and driving all over the place that makes you enjoy things even more.

Another vote for the Harman Kardon 430/730 over here. There is just something about that amp that synergizes so well with the Fortes that it's just really unfair at that price point. As a matter of fact, there's a 730 for sale over in the Garage Sale forums that's been recently serviced, and I'm sure would give you many many hours of listening pleasure. After working with mine to get it back up and running, I must say, HK really knows a thing or two about building an amplifier, as this thing is really a tank, electrically and sonically.

Something's gotta be wrong... crack her open and look for burnt resistors or exploded caps. Post pics.

Do a search here, there's plenty of info on it. From what I've read, it would seem that it's really not that great of a subwoofer, and I've seen numerous recommendations for the supposedly lesser Synergy-series Sub-10 over the RPW-10.

You can actually get a little package at Radio Shack... complete ripoff, but it gets the job done. It's a small can of deoxit and a small can of the deoxit gold formula. Those two together, if you use them as the instructions suggest, will have the inputs into the back of the sattelites and the ones going into the computer working good as new. Definitely do that, and like RandBFan suggested, go ahead and crack open the control pod and shoot some into the potentiometers. That should work well. Just make sure you shoot it in and immediately turn the volume back and forth around 40 times... that really gets it working. Let it dry out a few minutes before putting the control pod back together. shortbus... what's up dude?

I've heard that some people actually put heat sinks and fans on the back of their subs to help dissapate the heat... probably a good idea, actually. I can't believe a resistor could heat up and just burn like that. Oh well, good thing they're cheap. While you're in there, might as well upgrade some of the components.

All right well first of all, this has got to be the easiest project ever. Get replacement woofers (just search the word "Klipsch" on ebay and scroll away), take the grills off, take the back off, and put the new ones in. It's like 6-8 screws, max and two wires. Don't be afraid to just crack the thing open... you really can't break anything unless you try hard. Secondly, you are not going to want to give up that 4.1 sub, because the 2.1 sub is inferior. It has only one woofer rather than two, and its internal volume is smaller. The overall result is less bass, and bass that does not go as low. The 4.1 sub with some foam inside it is really not a bad multimedia subwoofer. The 2.1's is more limited. When I gave my dad my 4.1's upon going to college, he said "I can't use these, where am I going to put the back ones?". I said, "hook it up as a 2.1, it'll still be better than your PM2.1's by a longshot". Definitely true, my friend. The bass is much, much better on the 4.1's. Thirdly, $150 OBO for a broken pair of PM4.1's? You must be absolutely insane. I've seen ones in like new condition on ebay and craigslist for under $80. Just my honest suggestions.

EMU makes some great cards. They're now owned by Creative, but make the same cards. The 0404 and the 1212m are great cards. The 0404 is one of the best bangs for the buck, IMO. There's also a budget card that blows away the TBSC for $25, it's the Chaintech AV-710. If you can find one, that thing is really pretty decent for a budget card. Obviously RME makes a decent soundcard, and I've heard mixed reviews on M-Audio. If you want the best SQ from a computer, obviously, you'll need to get a DAC. Head over to Head-Fi.org and you can find loads of info on that.

Thanks! I'll pass on the EE, though. As much as I enjoy electronics and computers, I realized that I didn't have the necessary knowledge going into college to be a EE or CS and decided against it. I think it's the kind of thing you really need to grow up practicing to really be good at it. Besides, I really enjoy chemistry and I'm much better at that. The pots, honestly, are just simply going to need to be replaced down the road, and certainly not by me with my rudimentary soldering skills on one of those green boards that melt at the drop of a hat. I already shot Deoxit in them, but I'm going to have to order some faderlube, too, because they're definitely responsible for about 90% of the noise coming out of the amp at this point... and it's a very low noise floor compared to before, but honestly, getting that part of the signal path cleaned up could mean a nice increase in SQ down the road. I'll have to find someone in my area that does that kind of service and get it done next summer. For now, as far as I'm concerned, it works very well. Actually, there is no bypass for the tone controls, and if you know a jump I could do, let me know, I'll do it. I'd love to get the bass and treble controls out of the equation... unfortunately there is no defeat button.

Wow, you guys really like to talk about this... Anyway, I would question why hybrid technology hasn't caught on more. There's really no disadvantage to the inherent technology itself.

The thing is, though, Klipsch used a very light paper cone passive. Definitely not the best choice since it rips easily (as evidenced by the number of busted surrounds seen on ebay), but admittedly, it's a very light material and I'm not sure that the Dayton would perform as similarly. There's a positive review on it from a guy who used them for his Forte II's, but I'm just putting in my $0.02.

What you're describing sounds a lot like what I get from my Forte II's. That sense of effortlessness is just absolutely incredible... the speakers have just a huge dynamic range, even at low volumes... it's unreal. Slammin bass, airy highs? Check. Rock solid imaging? Well, I honestly haven't heard much else that's better, but one feature of the Fortes that I find unique is their ability to very much portray a 3D soundstage in every direction, even behind you. Really, the best feature of the Fortes is that they sound so realistic when it comes to instrument timbre reproduction. I got mine for $400 from a forum member. The original MSRP was $1200, and that's much closer to how they actually sound than $400.

I've never heard the 7's, but IME, sibilance and harshness is most always a factor of amplification and source. If you have a good amp, in fact, it'll only make the source sound worse. My dad connected his Creative Zen Vision:M to my HK 430 through my Fortes and it sounded kinda bright and harsh and we weren't that impressed (we both disable EQ). I pulled up the same CD on my iAudio X5L player and we were floored, and my dad remarked "it sounds like a different set of speakers".

My 430 still has that same startup noise (although to be honest, it's subtle and not much of an issue)... I'm convinced that's something else that needs to be dealt with separately, or I just need to entirely recap both the rectifier A and B boards. It's obviously some capacitor just audibly charging. The easiest solution if you really hate it is to just push the Speaker 1 & 2 buttons, turn it on, wait 5-6 seconds, and push them in again to reconnect the speakers. The problem before was that after the initial "HUUUMMMmmmmmmm....", it would continue humming. Now that drops down to almost inaudible. But for doing this project, you need not worry: these boards are extremely easy to solder. I was sure that I had way overheated that first board while desoldering my first capacitor, but those brown/tan PCB's are extremely durable and forgiving. The green ones melt easily, though... [:$] Still, I am entirely convinced that the 430 sounds much, much better now. Before I was like "eh, it could use more bass", now I'm levitating off my seat. Clearly, there was something wrong before. This amp opens up these Fortes now like swell shades on an organ! Interesting story: When I first powered up the amp after replacing the main, I actually listened to about three tracks and thought to myself "this sounds pretty good, much better than the T-amp, and the detail is unreal, but it could use just a tad more bass", and then I realized that I had accidentally left the bass knob turned down all the way. When I brought that up to middle, my eyes almost popped out of my head. Really, I went for the more low-end caps, even (although these are still gold audio-grade). I'd be curious to hear what the really high-end stuff does. It wasn't worth it for me to spend a lot on caps, though. This amp cost about $75 to begin with, then we figured out that FedEx was responsible for damaging something so they reimbursed me, so essentially I got it for free, but then I spent $25 on an old RMS multimeter (a nice one, an old Fluke), $8.00 on a new soldering iron and desoldering pump, and about $20 in capacitors. In the end, though, for about $60 spent...my GOSH... what a deal!

Chris (noki139), who I bought my fortes from here on the forums, had an Adcom amp and the Fortes just sounded amazing with it. The biggest thing that I noticed was that the soundstage was GIGANTIC with the Adcom amp. It was just amazing. I kept turning around thinking sounds were behind me... good stuff!!

Some of you may have heard this from my initial Forte thread, but the HK 430 that I ordered on ebay unfortunately had a bit of a nuisance when I got it in the mail - an annoying low-level hum, in the 60 hz. region. I posted in Audiokarma and a guy named "ecluser" over there helped me out: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=164874 Well, basically, the amp is as good as new after the mods he had me do. I learned a lot about electrics and electrical engineering (and soldering) during the process (you'll see a change by the end of the thread in my knowledge), and in the end, the amp is a lot better off. The amp, though, definitely sounds much much better than when I got it. Not only is the hum probably 1/10 of the intensity it originally was, the sound is much improved. I ordered these larger, audio-grade capacitors as part of "fixing" the main amp board (don't worry, the stock ones are 4-pin, but they're snap in and two of the pins are dummies): http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=UFW1H682MRDvirtualkey64700000virtualkey647-UFW1H682MRD Whatever they are, they definitely improved the sound. More detailed, less harsh highs, and bigger bass. Bottom line, this amp is really singing now and I can finally see why it gets such a great recommendation. It blows my T-amp out of the water, frankly, regardless of how well-regarded that amp is. Good stuff!

Yeah, that's the only perceivable problem I see with it. Still, I am convinced that with some modifications, it might be able to go deeper and be a little more useful to the already excellent B3's, which really perform well in the bass department, in fact. The enclosure seems sturdy, though, and is a nice size for my application (although I realize small size is exactly what the limiting factor is in most subwoofers). I'll have to crack it open and see what kind of damping material it has, if any. Thanks for the link to the OM, Billybob. I found the other links already actually, and forgot that you could search old products on Klipsch's site still by using the search box.

What exactly is not pleasing about the sound? Is it too bright?

I am definitely speechless.

Hey all, Well my ebay hunting abilities led me to jump on a KSW-50 subwoofer to add to my B3 setup for in my room in college. It was $34, and I picked it up locally, thus avoiding shipping charges and damages. It seems to be an 8" subwoofer, down-firing, with a port also facing down. The driver looks really cheap to be honest, but it seems to do its job and I could always throw another driver in there if I wanted an upgrade. Unfortunately Klipsch does NOT publish any data on their woofers or specifications or anything. I'd love to know what the Fs of this driver is. This thing looks a lot like the KSW-10/KSW-12 series but it's definitely different. For one thing, the entire thing is made out of wood, including the port, which is machined from a tube of synthetic or real wood from the looks of it, as well as the feet. The actual weight of the thing is extremely surprising also... I'd say it's at least 30 pounds, and definitely built like a tank. I accidentally slammed my trunk down on it and the little bar hit the top of the sub and just deflected... not a scratch on the sub itself. Anyway, this seems like it'll do the job. I connected it to my Fortes to test it out, and well, of course it didn't sound great since the fortes are designed to be their own subwoofer, but it didn't sound horrible, either. Really, for something that's only a little larger than the PM4.1's subwoofer, it's ten times better. It's not your typical cheapo boomy subwoofer. It doesn't dig that deep (I'm convinced this might improve with a better driver), but it certainly puts out a decent punch... way more than I'll need for my tiny apartment room. Anyone have any info on this thing? I can tell the autoon is going to drive me nuts. Any way to short that out? Schematics?